N d u r e | 1Ousmane NdureDr. Keith R. GaddieForrest Bennett Sect. 77P SC 1113-070September 9, 2013Scratch Beginnings ReactionPoverty is an issue that mankind’s civilized society has always faced and will likely always have to deal with. But the first step that the governing bodies of a society would take in their mission to improve the living standards of the poor would be for them to understand poverty. The disparities between the rich and the poor are starkly apparent in many countries of the world. Although the more affluent populationmay try to imagine the impecunious lifestyle of those who are less fortunate, they prefer to get a vicariously experience of what it means to be poor, thus some never truly understanding the plight. However, a good way to truly understand poverty may be to actually render oneself poor and live amongst the poor. This is the premise behind Scratch Beginnings. In this narrative, the author, Adam Shepard, chronicles his journey after voluntarily undergoing a drastic paradigm shift; he decides to give up all his earthly possessions to spend a year living discreetly as an impoverished homeless man. His reason for this socio-economic experiment was to challenge Barbara Ehrenreich’s notion that the American Dream was no longer achievable for the lower-class (blue-collar) population, regardless of howhard they worked. Shepard sets out on this experimental journey to discover if hard-work and discipline could bolster his chances of progressing from being poor and homeless to living an economically stable life. This essay explores the conclusions of this social experiment. It delves into Shepard’s persistent motivation to succeed, the services that allow him to eventually succeed, and it evaluates the credibility of the experimental method. Furthermore, the essay analyses the moral and political implications in this story, and highlights America’s current stance on Liberty. Shepard’s intention for this experiment was to find out if Barbara Ehrenreich was right; has theN d u r e | 2American Dream really gone out of reach, has it “been drowned out by the greed of the upper-class coupled with the apathy of the lower class” (Introduction). And although it may seem to be a worthy reason for one to commit himself to such a grave task, the question that resonates amongst readers is, why does he do this? What motivates him to go on until he succeeds? In the book’s introduction, Shepard lucidly states his goal for this project; he proclaims that he sees the project as a foundation for self-discovery, to give him the skills and knowledge he needs to accomplish more in his life (Introduction). He draws motivation out of the belief that he can achieve this goal and thus justify that the “American Dream is still alive” (Introduction). In page 29, the narrator begins to express conviction in his ability to succeed in this project. At this stage in the book where he lays in his sleeping bag, contemplating his future at Crisis Ministries, he realizes that “at that moment, more than any other during my time at Charleston, that my wallet would fill up. I knew that I was going to succeed” (29; ch. 2), and this is what motivates to keep going with his project and not give up. Furthermore, in chapter 4: ‘Big Babies’, Shepard says, he is “motivated by the understanding that I was working my way out of this destitute life” (48), which indicates what stopped him from not giving up although he was at liberty to withdraw from his project whenever he wanted to. The beginning of the narrative does provide readers with sufficient as to why Shepard was doing this, and we begin to see that he is driven to succeed and we see how he makes use of appropriate facilities or services that give him a chance at succeeding. In chapter one ‘Welcome to Crisis Ministries’, Shepard indicates that he decided to conduct his project in Charleston, a choice he made by “randomly [picking] out of a hat of twelve other U.S. cities” (1). He elaborates on how he made use of the accessible public government services to establish himself in Charleston. Firstly, Shepard mentions that he uses Amtrak, a public transport service, to travel by train from Raleigh to Charleston, “I chose the [Amtrak] train because, economically speaking, it was the most efficient choice.” This also shows how Shepard has already begun to make decisions influenced by a frugality that he is beginning to develop. Further into the book, the narrator speaks about how he beganN d u r e | 3to make frequent use of the bus service. The reader is able to see how imperative these bus rides were for Shepard when he says “My $1.25 bus ride was well invested. It rescued me from the streets” (1). Throughout the rest of the book, Shepard expresses how the bus rides had a quasi-therapeutic effect on him, “the one person that was keeping my spirits up was the bus driver” (134; ch. 10). After Shepard arrives in Charleston, he takes a bus to get to Crisis Ministries, a homeless shelter, for the public, located in a rough neighborhood. While at the shelter, he is the given the opportunity to search for job openings through www.charleston.net, a non-government service. He is shown how to set up a profile on the website but to his dismay, his job search returned with no responses. Shepard also elaborates on how hemade trips to the Charleston County Public Library to: check up on his job-searching venture, and exchange emails with members of his family. Shepard conveys his use of various public services that allowed to make a smooth transition into this new life and eventually manage to sustain balance between his struggle to find a job and realizing the values of companionship and family. While at the Crisis Ministries shelter, Shepard learns from the communal relationships that are held among the shelter’s inhabitants. He becomes friends with Marco, a man whom he considered to be rather influential. Marco is depicted as being a unique and outspoken person who “took full responsibility for his actions” (71). This is a value that seems to resonate in Marco’s outlook, that no matter what type of decisions you make in life, good or bad, in the end you are fully responsible for your own actions and should not blame anyone else or ask anyone to solve the problems for you. I believe that Shepard succeeds in achieving his goal because of the immense change that it has brought